Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Journey From Indifference

Sometime tonight I'll hear something at the screen door.  I might be asleep or might be awake but regardless, I'll open the door and probably say something like, "hey buddy, how did the hunting go?"

It will be Leo, my cat.  The only time he stays inside is to eat, sleep and get some petting.  He's not real crazy about rain but will reluctantly stay inside if its pouring outside.  So why would I wake from a sound  sleep, get up in the middle of the night to let a cat inside.  It's a long story and I'm only going to give the introduction here because it is too much for one telling.

When I was young, my wife and I wanted a house.  With no carpentry experience, I decided I would build us one.  Both our parents owned land in rural areas and both offered to give us a place to build.  My Daddy-in-Law said he knew a pretty place.  It was at the back side of his land about 1/4 mile off the highway and in the woods.  I realized later he probably thought the house would be awful and he would be ashamed of it.  What would the neighbors say?  The solution was put it off in the woods where no one would see it.  At any rate I didn't care, I liked it over there.

There were challenges; not least of all - mice!

My Mother suggested a cat.  Neither my wife nor I really liked cats but we didn't exactly hate them.  Mother reluctantly and apologetically gave us two saying she only had nine.  Here begins the stories which I will post as pages later.

By the way, here is a picture of my house:



12 comments:

  1. Good luck with you new blogs. It can be lots of fun. My spouse has a cat- Simba. I'm the dog person. Min is Baron a GSD. They actually get along (most of the time) but I have lots of animal stories too....:)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate it greatly especially as it seems difficult breaking into the blogosphere now with so much competition from Facebook and Twitter.

      At your blog, that must be your dog in the photo. He is mighty handsome! I missed the animal stories and photo of Simba(?) but I'll be visiting your site again and probably regularly.

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  2. Nice house. Hard to believe you had never built anything before that. I have always liked cats, but it took the wife a while to warm up to them. Now I'm afraid she will end up being the one with nine cats.

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    1. Thank you very much.

      Before I began building, I was working "on the road" with a powerhouse maintenance crew and one of the crew was an old carpenter. He told me many things including things you pretty much have to understand like laying studs out on center. Still I made lots of mistakes but its been home for over 30 years.

      Your wife and the cats, *laughing* yeah those cats tread lightly and you don't realize how much you are getting attached to them until the bond is pretty firm.

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  3. Not so shabby! No reason I can see to hide it in the woods!

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    1. Molly! Glad to see the rattler hasn't gotten you. I've been thinking what you could do about that but haven't come up with a sure fire solution yet.

      Thanks for stopping by and the comment about the house. Funny thing about it - after we got it finished my Daddy-in-law would bring people down to see it. Seems about everyone likes the cathedral ceilings in living room and kitchen.

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  4. I like the looks of your house. Great to meet you on my blog today.

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  5. Thanks Carol. Your Top 10 is a whole lot like my Top 10. I just never realized it until I saw your list. Here's hoping you great success on your new book! I'll put it on my reading list. It might be awhile before I get around to reading it. I'm a slow reader (my son says it took me three years to read War and Peace). I think it was only two but still...
    In my defense, War and Peace is a slog. I'm sure that is not the case with Solomon's Compass.

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  6. David, your house is amazing !! and you built it all yourself ??? A-Maz-ing !!!
    I think we need more photos and the story of the house. do you still live there ???

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    1. Oh! Thank you.

      I think I do have some photos when we were building it. First chance I'll look through and see what I have. Yes I still live here. It's home. A few years ago a sand plant built bought the land adjacent to mine and began mining and processing sand there. It's made living here much less desirable because of the noise and dust but there is a scope of trees between us which helps.

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  7. Wow, you built that beautiful house? That is an impressive talent you have there David. I think it's lovely! Was your father-in-law surprised? Sounds like he might have been. A house in the woods would be a dream home for me, especially if it was so far off the road.

    Thanks for visiting my present post. I am a point and shoot photographer also. I just know I like to take photographs and I'm impatient to take them and don't usually hang around for settings. I keep saying one day I will learn all that stuff but in the meantime I'll just keep pointing and shooting :)

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    1. Yes Denise. After Helsie posted the comment above I did a blog on when we were building it. The blog is a page here. You can see it by clicking on "Building the House" under Pages.

      My father-in-law never said anything to me but he would say things to other people and bring them down to look at it. He wasn't much for words but his actions showed what he thought.

      You've got an artist's eye and quick and steady hand! I'm glad the two of us were not gunslingers in the old west on opposing sides. I'm sure I would have wound up six feet under on Boot Hill.

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